It would behoove each MK to make a public statement regarding the need, and measures they suggest, to ensure that the status of the Jewish woman in Israel is secured.

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attempts to negotiate a coalition
government, the actual thoughts and policies of the potential partners are
uncovered for the public to see. As opposed to campaign promises and
declarations, the points for which the competing parties really stand are
determined in the process of give-and-take. The less important “principles” are
put aside as the price for the prize of government. Even before reaching the
negotiation table some are discarded, as their only function was campaign
good-talk.

Leading up to the elections, a popular topic that crossed the
lips of competing candidates was the exclusion of women in Israeli society, or
in its more positive form – women’s empowerment. The number of female candidates
on lists was strutted about alongside what were meant to be fine-sounding
explanations by the ultra- Orthodox as to why their list is a men’s
club.

We were reminded of the harassment of schoolgirls in Beit Shemesh
as well as the inequity in the pay scale for women. On the flip side it was
reported in the press that one candidate chose to be politically incorrect by
calling for the dismantling of the Knesset’s Committee for the Advancement of
Women. Notwithstanding, on the whole, all were in agreement that there was much
to do in Israel to elevate women’s status and that their party was the one to do
it.

If one goes past the lip service to the problem of women’s status and
delves deeper into the principle of egalitarianism in rights as well as respect
between the genders, one will find that a main root of the problematic situation
in Israeli Jewish society is the inability of a woman to freely determine her
personal status.

While a Jewish woman in Israel enjoys the freedom to
choose to change her status from single to married, she cannot choose to change
from married to divorced, meaning “remarriageable.” Since, in accordance with
Jewish divorce law (which applies to all Jews in Israel according to the civil
law) a divorce is possible only when the two spouses agree, either spouse can
hold the other to the marriage indefinitely.

The necessity for the man’s
consent to give the get, the Jewish writ of divorce, is biblically ordained,
while the woman’s consent is necessary by rabbinic decree.

(This
difference facilitates the resolving of the situation when a man is a victim of
get-refusal.)

A woman who is a victim of get-refusal is known as a modern-day
agunah. She is “chained” to her marriage for as long as the husband refuses to
give her a get. He can name his price or simply say “no.”

WHILE IT is
true that the Israeli rabbinical courts have legal jurisdiction over Jewish
divorce, which in turn provides the rabbinic judges with powers to sanction
recalcitrant husbands – powers of which their counterparts in the Diaspora can
only dream – the system is plagued by tragedies and seemingly insoluble
problems. It is not sufficient to demand of the rabbinical courts alone to
resolve the agunah issue. That approach has not received the desired
results.

The agunah problem is multi-faceted – involving rabbis, the
civil family court, the rabbinical court, government ministries and committees,
societal mores, individuals and the legislature. It can be solved by each of the
aforementioned components first recognizing the problem and then cooperating in
a coalition to bring about solutions.

Now is the time for each of the
contenders to the formation of the next government of Israel to take the lead
and to relate to the very core of the status of women in a Jewish-democratic
state. Espousing progressive views on women’s rights should begin with the very
basic – eradicating the agunah problem. Moreover, this should not be done
quietly, at the negotiation table alone.

One of the newly elected MKs,
Dr. Aliza Lavie, initiated an event marking Agunah Day together with ICAR (the
International Coalition of Agunah Rights) taking place on Wednesday – just prior
to “Agunah Day” which falls this year on the following day, February
21.

The basis for cooperation between our legislative body and the public
in dealing with the agunah problem has thus been established. Similarly, the
next step should be between the MKs and the soon-to-be-established government by
including the elimination of this destructive phenomenon as part of the
coalition’s efforts to better Israeli society.

This special day provides
the opportunity for those who have the means to educate the society which they
represent. It would behoove each MK to make a public statement regarding the
need, and measures they suggest, to ensure that the status of the Jewish woman
in Israel is secured so that she has the peace of mind that neither she nor her
daughter will become an agunah.

The writer is a rabbinical court
advocate; coordinator of the Agunah and Get-Refusal Prevention Project of the
Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel and the Jewish Agency; author of Min’ee
Einayich Medim’a on prenuptial agreements for the prevention of get-refusal; and
one of the authors of the prenuptial “Agreement for Mutual Respect”; and a
member of ICAR.